This is a nice piece from the recent Mid-Ohio TV coverage that shows the track nicely enough and also shows the new NSX darting around an Accord Coupe. I’m trying very hard to get excited about the new NSX, so far completely without success. But maybe if I see it drive around enough I’ll come to love that anodyne shape and non-Viper-ish approach to supercar performance.

For a contrast of sorts to that very polished and fascinating video, here’s your humble author hackin’ it up around Mid-Ohio six years ago in a Camaro-Mustang-Challenge race. I didn’t actually fit in the car so I had to sit sort of sideways during the race which led to all sorts of very slow shifting and one rather fearsome brake lockup. The noise from the unmuffled Cobra 5.0 is worth it, however.

For the kind of money this new NSX will cost, you could probably have any of the three bad-ass track cars you see schooling my old ’95 in the video — Elliot Fisher’s supercharged AIX 2005 Mustang, a Viper Comp Coupe, or a race-gas-guzzling ASA stock car. My laptime of 1:42.3 is about what you’d expect a stock NSX to do, I suspect, but that Mustang sold for $12,000 right after I got done almost wrecking it. On the other hand, you’ll never see a Mustang in a Marvel Universe movie, right?

My >20 years-long love affair with the NSX is slowly coming to a close. Its place is being taken by the new C7 Corvette Stingray. First time I’ve EVER lusted after a ‘Vette, too. Not even Jack’s beloved Z06 Carbon did the trick for me.

I remember in last Prez election when both the politiclowns were criss-crossing Ohio, essentially living in Ohio given its importance, talking up jobs-jobs-jobs and American competitiveness and blah-blah-blah.

But neither one would go near the Honda facility, because of ‘bad optics’ about visiting a ‘Japanese’ car company and all that. But at this point what’s more American than building Honda stuff in Ohio? Just tells you how removed modern politicians are from the actual zeitgeist whose votes they seek.

I’ve never understood this disconnect between politicians, Ohioan’s, and American Honda. I can only surmise that politicians won’t visit or pat AHM on the back because, largely, a job at AHM or its several nearby vendors are non-union, and doing that would anger UAW management. Now, there was a very good reason in the past for workers to organize, but many of those reasons have since evaporated as Japanese manufacturers reasoned that they could treat employes, meaning supply comparable benefits, as unions used to be noted for. It particularly odd in Ohio, as this is where AHM has their largest American employe base of any state. I think I found it particularly ridiculous when, I read, an Ohio UAW member won a Honda Accord, and refused it, as it was not union-built.

I think I take the middle ground, let’s praise manufacturers, from where ever, who bring jobs to the States, and let’s praise UAW-represented workers who work in good faith(as at Jeep’s Jefferson Ave plant) with management to shoot for improving quality and keeping their plants running, while maintaining their benefits.

I’m not Jack but I’ll take a guess. Viper = massive gas-guzzling V10 as big as possible and a gas tank (and appetite) to match. NSX = relatively small, efficient engine with a hybrid powertrain and batteries so that the whole vehicle is as efficient as possible. The NSX tries to recycle power from braking back into the batteries so that it can be re-used to accelerate. The Viper just chucks it out as heat from the massive brake disks and burns more gas to accelerate.